It’s Saturday night, and with a wee dram of Jameson’s to lubricate the synapses, I’m going to try and capture some thoughts and impressions from the last wild week. 

Earlier I mentioned that coronavirus had been swept from the front pages with the latest distraction, Ukraine. This week it seems the Crona Plague was swept completely out of the news in favor of non-stop vilification of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Don’t misunderstand me. I see Putin’s aggression as horrible. War is something to be avoided, and it doesn’t look like there was any effort to avoid this at all. But, what I’m seeing, hearing and reading has prompted many questions and observations:

• Putin says the primary goal of this military action is to secure Ukraine’s commitment to not join NATO. He doesn’t want NATO on Russia’s doorstep. I can’t disagree with this, as it’s fairly the same position Kennedy took against Russia in 1962 when they were placing missiles in Cuba. Compounding the issue is Clinton’s promise to Gorbachev that NATO would not expand when the USSR was dissolving, which was a disingenuous promise at best, as NATO has done nothing but expand since then. Is this an unreasonable desire on Putin’s part? Might the actions of NATO over the past three decades be construed as aggression?

• I find the news coverage in the West nothing but a scripted presentation of “Russia bad, Ukraine good”, especially the United States. The cries of “defending democracy” ring hollow, for Ukraine is not a democracy. It’s a corrupt state that teeters on the brink of failure for as long as I can remember.

• Why does Biden and the US legacy media see Ukraine’s borders as worth defending, but not our own southern border?

• Am I alone in thinking that Biden is seriously compromised in dealing with anything involving Ukraine due to his family’s questionable financial relationships in that country?

• Does anyone else find it odd that the US and Europe continue to buy oil and gas from Russia despite this military incursion? Secretary of State Blinken says the US is continuing purchases to “lessen the pain on us”. Really? Here’s a better idea, Blinky- restart the Keystone pipeline and reinstate the working and effective policies of the previous president. Restore the US to energy self-sufficiency and being a net exporter of fossil fuels. Doing this will have the dual effect of not only lowering the cost of fuels domestically and internationally, but also will pluck the petrodollars from Putin’s wallet. He’ll no longer be able to fund military adventures.

• Restating more of the above: Biden’s energy policies directly contributed to Putin having the ability to start this war. The only thing Russia has  to sell is oil and gas. Trump’s policies kept the prices low, so there was no money for Vlad to party. Biden’s policies filled Putin’s coffers, and off to war he went.

• Biden and Harris bloviate to no end about the “severe sanctions” the US will impose upon Russia, and less than 48 hours later boldly say that they didn’t expect the threat of sanctions to have any effect. Still scratching my head over this one.

• News came out that during the last administration, Trump told Putin directly that if he moved on Ukraine, Moscow would be bombed. Apparently he told Xi to leave Taiwan alone or Beijing would get some, too. I’m not sure if these warnings are what kept each of them in line for those four years, but in line they were. And I’ve yet to see any denials of this story.

• The people Biden has communicating on behalf of his administration are sad. Being called Junior Varsity would be an overstatement. I’ve never seen such a collection of low information, narcissistic and condescending underachievers on the public stage. I’m loath to call anyone stupid, but the Biden shills deserve the title.

I think I could go on for a few more pages, but I try really hard to keep these posts under 750 words, and I’m getting close. And the Jameson’s is almost gone. All of this, and much, much more is out there if you put in a bit of effort searching it out.

Closing out with Tulsi Gabbard’s (D-Hawaii) speech at CPAC last night. I am no real fan of CPAC, and haven’t been one of Gabbard, but this speech is starting to change my mind. It’s old school ‘Murica, and I encourage you to invest 25 minutes to watch it.